Triple shooting suspect held without bail

LOWELL -- Less than four hours after he turned himself into police, the suspect in last Thursday's triple shooting on Chelmsford Street was ordered held without bail on charges including three charges of armed assault with intent to murder.

In Lowell District Court Tuesday, Leroy Mey was also charged with discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building and carrying a firearm without a license.

Mey, 21, turned himself shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday, a day after his older brother was in court on gun charges said to be related to the shooting that hospitalized three men.

"We're grateful to have Mr. Mey in custody because we deemed him a serious threat to the community based on his actions last week," Police Superintendent William Taylor said. "He was definitely a dangerous individual and we're glad that he's in custody."

Prosecutors said Mey shot at a car driving away from the BP gas station near the intersection of Chelmsford and Hutchinson streets around 3 p.m. Thursday, after a breakdown in communication during a drug deal.

The three men in the car were hit and hospitalized with injuries that police said were not life-threatening.

The shooting was across the street from the Lincoln Elementary School but not linked to the school in any way, police said. The school temporarily went into lockdown and all students and staff were safe and unharmed.

The car, a silver Mitsubishi, crashed into a snowbank after the shots were fired.

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Two passengers were transported to Boston Medical Center and are still hospitalized, though their conditions were unknown.

A third man got out of the car and ran to a nearby business. Prosecutors said he later identified Mey from a selection of photos presented by police.

Police released Mey's name, photo and description on Friday, asking for the public's help in locating the Lowell man.

On Sunday night, police received a call from a woman who said she might have the gun used in the shooting, inside a lockbox Mey's brother, Sydney Mey, had given her and asked her to hold.

Police said Sydney Mey admitted the box, which contained a .22-caliber revolver, more than 100 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, 18 shotgun shells and a high-capacity magazine, was his.

He was arraigned Monday and held on $5,000 cash bail for charges of carrying a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition with a firearms identification card, possession of a large-capacity firearm and carrying a loaded firearm without a license.

Taylor said police could not verify whether the guns and ammunition belonged to Leroy Mey.